The national road season reaches Taranaki this weekend. On Saturday 29 August, 132 runners and walkers will race the 2026 ASB New Zealand Road 10km and Walks Championships at Lake Rotomanu in New Plymouth, an event supported by Venture Taranaki and carrying ASB as its naming partner. The grades run the full width of the sport, from Under 14 walkers taking on 3km to masters runners in their seventies, which is part of what makes the national road championships worth turning up for.
Toby Gualter arrives as the man to beat in the senior men’s 10km. The Olympic Harriers runner has collected seven national titles across the road 5km, mountain running, the 5000m and the half marathon, and won this year’s national half marathon in Christchurch in 1:03:15. He is New Plymouth-bound a few weeks out from the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, where he will race the half marathon in the black singlet.
Chasing him is Isaac Murphy, who has been in good road form for Feilding Moa and took the Manawatu Wanganui 10km title in Halcombe last August in 31:27. Callum Stewart and Joel Carman bring Wellington club pedigree, and Feilding Moa stack the field further with Benjamin Wall, Andre Le Pine-Day and George Varney. On a flat course, a race like this can stay together a long way, so the finishing few kilometres should be worth watching.
Katherine Camp leads the senior women. A national champion who built her name on the track before moving up in distance, the Te Awamutu runner finished second overall at this year’s Rotorua Half Marathon, beaten only by one man in the whole field, and she too has been picked for the half marathon in Copenhagen. Sarah Drought, a former World Cross Country representative for New Zealand, heads the group trying to run with her, alongside Bridie Restieaux, Charlotte Verhaegen, Esther George and Ella Creagh.
The senior men’s 10km walk is a stacked field with three of the four entrants having pulled on the New Zealand singlet at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Brasilia in April. Lucas Martin of Athletics Wanganui, a multiple national champion and the 2024 Oceania 5000m walk champion, lines up against Jonah Cropp of Sumner Running Club and, in front of his home crowd, Toby O’Rorke of New Plymouth Athletic Club. Daniel du Toit of Trentham United makes it a four-strong field of genuine quality.
The senior women’s 10km walk sets Laura Langley, one of the country’s top-ranked senior women walkers, against Alana Mathews of Racewalking Auckland. Around them, the walks carry a strong Taranaki flavour through the Taranaki Race Walking Club and New Plymouth Athletic Club, from the masters grades down to the youngest walkers on the 3km. For a host region, having local walkers in national fields is exactly the sort of home story a championship weekend is built on.
The masters men’s 10km is the biggest field of the championships, with runners aged from 35 to 76 and a large Taranaki turnout racing on home roads. Defending champion Eric Speakman returns looking to retain the national masters title he claimed last year, while Tom Bridgeman brings strong form after finishing fourth across the line at this year’s national cross country championships. Dwight Grieve and Chris Sanson add further depth to a highly competitive field. In the Under 20 men’s race, 2026 U18 national steeplechase silver medallist Samuel Rickerby will be among the favourites, but James Weber is rarely far from the podium and Connor Kemp is another athlete capable of featuring prominently. The masters women complete a strong veteran contingent, headed by Sarah Gardner, while Feilding Moa’s junior women feature heavily in the Under 20 ranks. Juliet Moorhead is expected to battle Nisha Moorfield and this year’s Under 18 1500m silver medallist Paige Dobson.
Around the championships, a 5km open race and a 2.5km children’s event give New Plymouth locals a way into the day without a club singlet, which keeps the national championships tied to the community hosting them.
Entries are still open for the open 5km race and the kids 2.5km fun run! Enter now.
New Plymouth makes an easy weekend of it. The coastal walkway, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the presence of Mount Taranaki are all within reach of the start line, so athletes and supporters travelling for the championships have plenty to fill the hours either side of racing.